Midian Design is an indie developer company that produced a
range of games including Odissea - An Almost True Story, Oz
Orwell and the Crawling Chaos, and Quantumnauts 2: Black Hole
Happens!.

The person behind Midian Design is
Danilo Cagliari, who creates the games single-handedly apart from
testing and translation.

GB: How did you get into making
games?

DC: Iím
39 years old now, and I've been playing computer games from the time
of Arkanoid, back in the mid-eighties. At the age of 18, I loved the
adventure games by Lucasfilm, and wanted to make adventure games myself. But at
that time there wasnít any appropriate programming software to start
an amateur project. Around 2008 I discovered the AGS (Adventure Game
Engine), which gave me the opportunity to realize my dream on my
own.

GB: Whatís your background?

DC: I
have always worked in the graphics sector in different situations,
but nothing as satisfying as realizing video games, creating
stories, animating them, and of course, seeing them appreciated.

GB: What games do you like playing
yourself?

DC: I
love all kinds of video games. I have recently enjoyed Tomb Raider,
Bioshock Infinite, GTA, and Divinity Original Sin, but probably
those that I prefer the most are MMORPGs. I've played pretty much
all of them since the days of Ultima Online. From a person who makes
only graphic adventures, people might expect another kind of answer,
but I actually do prefer to produce adventure games over playing
them.

GB: What influences your game
making?

DC: I
am a fan of the themes that relate to mystery. My games are
influenced by sci-fi writers both in scientific and
pseudo-scientific fields. I always wanted to create adventure games
inspired by the great names of the past such as Lucasfilm and
Sierra, by inserting the themes which I appreciate like ufology,
ancient civilizations, paranormal powers, etcÖ

GB: What drives you to make games?

DC: I
wanted to make adventure games especially for my desire to tell
stories. There is a common thread in my games, maybe it is not clear
to all those who played them, but this is the main reason. I wanted
to express an opinion and share it in a visual and playable way.

GB: Are you a full time game maker?

DC: I work in both the graphics and
computer business, so in a way, yes.

GB: Do you ever wish for a 9-5 job?

DC: Iíve had a nightmare or two
about itÖ

GB: Do you work long hours and all
the days of the week?

DC:
Absolutely. I do take care of everything -- plot, graphics, music...
Only two parts, beta testing and translating, are done by others. But
if I want to succeed in producing at least one game a year, I really
have to commit myself, which I do.

GB: How do you manage developing a
game? For instance Broken Age used sprints.

DC: I think basically every project,
game or not, works in sprints or iterations. Especially when you
work in a team style, for example translators and beta-testers or
even publishers.

So to give you a good view of my developing
time-line, I can roughly build it up in the next iterations or
sprints blocks:

Iteration 01: fleshing out and writing out the
story.

Iteration 02: creating the art (backgrounds,
sprites, music and sound-fx).

Iteration 03: coding everything, up to a fully
playable alpha build.

Iteration 04: the alpha build is now been
translated into English and is also roughly tested.

Iteration 05: issues noticed during testing are
fixing now plus some fine-tuning (minor changes and additions).

Iteration 06: the first beta version got tested
thoroughly.

Iteration 07: fixing the bugs from the 6th
iteration. Sometimes add some slight alterations, an example can be
because one or more testers reported about a puzzle which logic (in
solving it) didn't made enough sense.

Iteration 08: the first Release Candidate got
tested.

Iteration 09: some very minor bugfixing.

Iteration 10: the second Release Candidate got
tested.

Iteration 11: last few tweakings, at this point
it's already pretty bug-free so to speak, so only tweaking/tuning
here is left.

Iteration 12: the third Release Candidate got
tested. This usually doesn't get any negative results, so ready for
release now (and otherwise 2 iterations, 1: fixing and 2: testing
will be added)

DC: The
thing that really excites me in this game, The Apotheosis Project,
is to see a component that was not present in my previous
productions so far, which is the dubbing by really talented voice
actors/actresses. People who follow the news of upcoming products at
Screen7 might already know about this, so adding this new aspect
(voice acting) to my newest, and soon to be released, game makes it
even more exciting for me.

GB: Do you work on more than one
game at a time?

DC: No,
it would be impossible for me. I like to think constantly about a
specific story, make it grow month after month by adding new ideas,
and therefore it is necessary to invest all my energy into one
product at a time.

GB: Is it important that people
playing games know real people have made them? And how hard it can
be to make games?

DC:
With the advent of social networks, it has become a practice --
there is no longer a real boundary line between "fans" and
programmers, the same as with singers or actors. Such a platform
provides an opportunity to have direct contact of course, but the
appearance of the internet has reduced the gap. I would not want to
be argumentative, but unfortunately this situation, if good for
some, is obviously, from another point of view, bad for others. In
fact, I've seen games being completely ruined because of the
pressure from the players. Day after day they clogged the forums and
social networks with claims that arenít objective enough, which
often led the programmers to distort the original idea, which was
fine for the more silent majority of players. This is especially
true and happening in the field of MMORPGs. So I'd love to work on
one of these MMORPG projects. But because of the negative type of
community that comes with these games, I prefer working on adventure
games instead

GB: How important is support from
the Adventure game fan community?

DC:
Itís very important. In recent years I have had many contacts from
people who simply want to meet me or make a compliment, and also
people who help me with the projects, help me to make it known
around the world. Alone I will not reach any goal.

GB: Is now a good or bad time to be
making games?

DC:
Nowadays we have Steam, GOG, Desura and another thousand sites for
digital distribution, sales and offers... The fight against piracy
gets stronger and people begin to understand the importance of
keeping the game market alive. So yes, it is a great time to be a
creator of videogames. Especially for independent software houses.

GB: Can games say things besides
being entertainment? Like express political views?

DC: As
said before, absolutely. Thatís what I do, but not literally 'in the
field of politics' of course. But I always try to convey a message.
That, of course, can be read but it is not necessary to do so in
order to appreciate the game itself. The media does this too,
sending messages of all kinds, in every way. It is sort of
undeniable.

GB: Can games be Art? Is that a
meaningful question?

DC:
Games are definitely art. Not all of course, running behind a ball
in a pixel version is not art, but when I think of games like Zelda
Windwaker, ICO, Brothers, Loom, just to name a few, it is clear that
we are talking about art. In a video game we have music, history,
modelling, itís a tangle of art forms.

GB:
Will you still be making games
in 10 yearsí
time?

DC:
Well, I will have approximately 50 years left, and after that I'll
be pretty much a kid again. And then... So, unless we find ourselves
in a scenario like Fallout, I do think Iíll be making games for as
long as possible.